Last week, I was in the South African parliament. I listened to President Zuma and what he had to say regarding corruption. Regardless of the question, the answer was always the same: It’s all Apartheid’s fault. Given the fact that this discriminatory system has been abolished in 1994, I felt slightly surprised that he got away with this simplistic rhetoric.

To me this is old black and white thinking in the literal sense. It’s so deeply engrained in all of our societies, regardless of the continent. And it also comes along in the modern dress of the internet and social media. Do you like or dislike this statement, comment, picture or video? Thumbs up or down?

But do we always have to judge?

The point with binary judgments is: We stay in certain patterns, in preconceived notions we have been brought up with. And it’s the either – or – thinking that limits ourselves to two options only. What about the ‘rest’? And what about all the other shades of brown that are between black and white? When we open up to what others see and say, we can gain a lot.

Photo: Paul Emmet, Nyasha Karumazondo, Kathrin Köster

Three different people on the same journey through South Africa:

Overwhelmed by the beauty of nature, I am so grateful to experience what this planet has to offer. Janine can’t believe to see what is possible in Africa and feels thrilled to go ahead with her transformational work in her own country up North. And Harry sees how communities of colored people emancipated themselves, turning options into opportunities.

All three perspectives are valuable and offer a different aspect: Nurturing, motivational, societal.

If we stop the habit of judging, we discover the wealth of perceptions and ideas. This brings color to our lives – and creativity to our organizations.

Two days ago, I talked to Claire who shared the following story with me:

“I was so happy. I exceeded the budget figures. Together with my team, I was better than the forecast in a very difficult market. I went into Annett’s office – who is my boss – to share the breaking news, and guess what her reaction was? Annett briefly interrupted her conversation with Michael, a colleague, barely looked up and mumbled: ‘Oh, ok!’ Then, she continued to talk with Michael. I wanted to say more to highlight how unexpected this positive result was, but I swallowed my words and returned to my desk. I felt like I had hit a wall…”

Joy turned into disappointment within a blink of an eye. Why?

Annett was distracted and not in the mood of listening to Claire. She could not take in the good news. She was not switched on with all senses. Otherwise, she would have picked up the positive feeling Claire brought into the room. Annett missed the opportunity to receive and even reinforce Claire’s positive energy and sharing her joy.

Instead, her absent-mindedness or ‘absent-heartness’ transformed joy into something negative.

JOY is FREE ENERGY. Sharing joy boosts the motivation of all team members. It’s a real WOW-factor for great team work. It requires openness from both sides – the ‘sender’ and the ‘receiver’.

I am currently in Bucharest where I held a talk at a conference attended by roughly 100 experienced HR specialists from international and local businesses.

My point in a nutshell:
Let’s turn Human Resources to Human Sources, on an individual and functional level. Let’s stop to have robots or Full Time Equivalent (FTE) and see the entire human being with all its facets and power: Intellectual Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, and all together we have a lot of Social Intelligence.
If we take out the ‘Re’ from Human Resources and develop the understanding of Human Sources, we gain sustainability. With the power of positive emotions on an individual and group level, people will boost the business – and increase profits merely as a side effect.
It’s time for a paradigm shift.
I was curious to take the pulse in Bucharest – what are the companies up to? What’s going on at Human Resources?

At the beginning, my heart started to sink when a speaker stated: “Every organization is about profit.” Ok, I heard that talk before.
But only minutes later, other speakers made my day.
Here a couple of examples taken from the various speeches:

“There is no process without emotions.”

“People got their passion from the 70year old mentor who fired them up. ….He was also the best dancer in the company.”

“It was a deep approach, but light, playful, with fun.”

“We are proud of taking care.”

“Always ask yourself: What would I do for a friend?”

“(Doing this project….) is a life experience, not an HR experience.”

“Make HR more human-centric.”

“Try to understand my need.”

“This was the most important project in Romania, because I could see the satisfaction and joy.”

The last statement was also true for me. Not only could I see the satisfaction in the faces of the participants but I myself was fulfilled with joy as I realized: Finally, there is a clear trend towards acknowledging the human being with its full potential – a trend to turn Human Resources into Human Sources.